Virginia Tech stifles Chattanooga in NCAA women's tournament

BLACKSBURG — The Virginia Tech women’s basketball team lived up to its No. 1 seed Friday night — on defense, at least.

The Hokies smothered No. 16 seed Chattanooga 58-33 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Cassell Coliseum.

“We’re going to make you take tough shots, and I thought we did that today,” Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks said.

Chattanooga’s 33 points was the lowest total the Hokies have ever allowed in the NCAA Tournament.

“They were stifling,” Mocs coach Shawn Poppie said. “It was hard to get good looks.”

The Hokies (28-4) were knocked out in the first round last year, when 12th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast beat the fifth-seeded and injury-plagued Hokies at Maryland.

This time, Virginia Tech scored the first eight points of the game and led the rest of the way.

The Hokies won their 12th straight game. It was Tech’s first game since the ACC tournament final on March 5.

“We were a little bit rusty, which I felt like we were going to be,” Brooks said.

Virginia Tech will host No. 9 seed South Dakota State at 5 p.m. Sunday in a second-round game that will air on ESPN2. South Dakota State (29-5) beat Southern Cal 62-57 in overtime in the second game of Friday night’s doubleheader.

“We just really kept [the offense] vanilla so that we could just try to work out some of the kinks but also not expose everything we want to try to do [Sunday],” Brooks said.

Tech point guard Georgia Amoore had 22 points.

Amoore was 5 of 8 from 3-point range. She has now made 99 3-pointers this season, breaking the Tech single-season record of 96 set by Aisha Sheppard last season.

“We were trying to funnel her into areas tonight to try to get her to shoot 2s because she’s so deadly with her little step-back,” said Poppie, a former Tech assistant. “She hit a 3 to start the fourth quarter — we knew the play call, we know what’s coming and she still gets a wide-open 3. That’s how special she is.”

Tech center Elizabeth Kitley had 12 points and 14 rebounds. The Mocs (20-13) limited her to six shots; she made four of them.

“We sent a double [team] every time she caught it,” Poppie said.

A sellout crowd of 8,925 fans attended the game — the fourth-largest home crowd in the Tech program’s history.

“That was awesome,” Kitley said. “I knew that it was going to be great energy in here. Shout-out to the students because I heard it was a hard time getting tickets.”

It was the biggest home crowd for Tech since the Hokies played at home in the first two rounds of the 1999 NCAA Tournament.

“It’s not like they just filled the seats — it was really loud,” Amoore said.

The crowd noise made it hard for the Mocs to run their offense.

“We struggled getting play calls to all be on the same page,” Poppie said. “There’s a lot of possessions where [only] four of our kids were in something. … That would throw us out of rhythm.”

The crowd also made it tough for the Mocs at the free-throw line. Chattanooga was 1 of 5 from the line.

“Free throws, … the stadium was literally shaking,” Amoore said.

Tech is hosting a first-round doubleheader and second-round game for the first time since 2004. It was not a capacity crowd Friday because some seats were reserved for the other three teams and went unused.

Kayana Traylor had 12 points for Tech.

Tech forward Taylor Soule scored 10 points before hurting her left leg late in the third quarter. She did not go back in the game. Brooks said she cramped up.

Soule was helped to the bench and eventually headed to the locker room. She later returned to the bench. She walked without assistance after the game as she and her teammates did a lap around the court, high-fiving fans.

“I guess when you have that many muscles you’re going to cramp up,” Brooks said. “The word I got was I could’ve put her back in at the end if I needed to; if I didn’t need to, then don’t. So we’ll get her some fluids, let her rest. … I think she’ll be fine.”

The Mocs shot just 28.6% from the field — the worst field-goal percentage ever by a Tech foe in the NCAAs.

“They put so much pressure on you to shoot contested jump shots, mostly off the dribble,” Poppie said. “Any screening actions, they’re there on the catch. Obviously they funnel you inside to Kitley, which presents a huge problem. … It forces you to be able to beat them one-on-one off the dribble, and that’s not how we’re built.”

Mocs forward Abbey Cornelius was 1 of 7 from the field. At 6-foot-2, she is four inches shorter than Kitley.

“That probably affected me,” Cornelius said. “We don’t play any 6-6 players on a regular basis.”

Chattanooga guard Yazz Wazeerud-Din had 10 points. She was 4 of 19 from the field, including 1 of 11 from 3-point range.

Mocs forward Raven Thompson also had 10 points. She was 5 of 14 from the field.

D’asia Gregg snared 11 rebounds for Tech, which outrebounded the Mocs 38-22.

The Mocs went on an 8-1 run to cut the lead to 9-8 with 4:23 left in the first quarter. But the Hokies answered with a 17-0 run to build a 26-8 cushion with 5:10 to go in the second quarter.

Tech opened the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run to build a 52-27 cushion with 5:14 to go. Tech shot 60% from the field in the fourth.

Poppie was one of Brooks’ assistants the past six seasons before leaving last spring to take the Chattanooga job. Poppie and Brooks hugged before the game. Poppie hugged Brooks and the Tech players after the game.

“Hard game, obviously, going against a good friend,” Brooks said.

Tech fans sang “Enter Sandman” at tipoff. Tech could not play the song on its public address system at the start of the game like it usually does because NCAA Tournament rules require these games to be treated like a neutral event.

“I wish they would’ve let us play ‘Enter Sandman,’” Brooks said. “The roof would’ve blown off.”